When you eat of the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
The Psalmist (Ps. 128:2)
Here is God’s idea of a happy meal and it’s a much healthier happiness than the usual box of carbs and sugar. Although it doesn’t include a plastic pink mermaid, it has much deeper and longer-lasting pleasures. So what makes such plain fare taste so good?
God has given work: The godly woman sits down at the meal table and thanks God for occupying her hands, for giving her work, and the ability to do it.
God has given work that pays: The working man rejoices that he is not a slave and that his daily labor results in daily pay.
God has given food to purchase: What use is money if the store shelves are empty? The believer knows there are places where shortages are common and therefore sees rows of varied breads as the gift of God.
God has given efficient means to cook it: He doesn’t need to hunt for wood, start a fire, and wait for hours. He turns on the electricity or pops something into the microwave and a few beeps later, a tasty meal is ready.
God has given the appetite for it: Anyone who’s spent even a few days without an appetite will tell you what a misery it is. You have to eat but you can’t eat. The godly woman therefore rejoices for every hunger-pang.
God has given a body that can process and use it: When you pop a potato in your mouth, multiple internal factories start whirring to receive and process the food for the good of our body.
God strengthens for the next day of labor: ”It shall be well with you.” Future tense because food not only refreshes from the toils of today but strengthens for tomorrow’s tasks too.
God gives good company: Have a read of the whole Psalm to appreciate the domestic harmony at this dinner table. No home alone for this man. His table is adorned with a loving wife and lively children.
God gives a taste of heaven: As heaven is often portrayed as banquet, every happy meal is a little foretaste of a happy heaven, with the whole person being satisfied and nourished. That’s a happy meal that will never end,
God gives all this to the undeserving: Knowing that all he deserves is eternal hunger and eternal thirst in eternal misery in eternal hell, the Christian tastes mercy in every morsel, grace in every glass, happiness in every hoagie. He tastes and sees that God is good, who trusts in Him is blessed.
When you eat of the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
The Psalmist (Ps. 128:2)